Birds of a Feather
Birds of a Feather is a 2D collectathon sandbox platformer developed and published by Ghostrealm Studios for the Enigma console. It takes place in the Ghostverse. Enigma Store Description When the infamous villain known as Vance the Skythief steals the precious Exvento Swap console from the birds Felton and Trent, they embark on a journey to take it back! *''Enjoy the first 2D collectathon in history!'' *''Delve into exotic locales, fight strange enemies, and uncover secrets!'' *''Unwind with multiplayer modes and minigames!'' *''Amass a collection of various items!'' Opening Movie Felton and Trent can be seen standing before Cloudgaze Valley from their nest. As Felton glides off, Trent wearily follows as the game's logo is shown. The duo come across a group of Molegos, who are shocked as the two birds swoop down and attack. From there, they continue to run across the landscape. A small hill can be seen, but Felton gives Trent a boost as he jumps up, before helping Felton up. However, they find themselves cornered by a group of smirking Heliserpents, who hiss at the duo. They proceed to fly up into the sky and tear through their balloons, before they run away in fear. The scene then cuts to the duo facing off against Wippen, dodging his hammer strikes. Felton leaps onto a piece of debris, before motioning for Trent to do the same. As they leap from rock to rock, they smirk at each other before diving right towards the hippo's head. As he falls to the ground, the two of them high-five before looking out at the sunset, arms on each others' shoulders. Story Two birds, a duck known as Felton and an owl known as Trent, have been best friends ever since their childhood, to the point where they're roommates. When the new "Exvento Swap" console is released, they manage to snag one amidst the stock issues. However, as they're about to play it within their nestlike home, a giant hawk known as Vance the Skythief flies towards their home, snatching their console and TV. After a rant in which Vance details how hard it's been to secure the console, he flies towards the nearby mountains. The two birds, heartbroken, decide to take back the console, by navigating the world in search of the Golden Eggs, which are necessary to pay off the Breadkeeper, a pigeon who's in charge of travel between the different regions of the world, so that Vance's lair can be infiltrated. As the duo travel throughout the world, they find out that the Skythief is attempting to steal all sorts of objects, employing minions he's bribed into service. Characters Controls Birds of a Feather is built for the Enigma console, utilizing most of its features. Gameplay Birds of a Feather is a 2D sandbox platformer that takes place in large, open levels that lack time limits and loop around, with no clear "end" point. Said levels are designed around obtaining Golden Eggs, collectables needed to pay off the Breadkeeper so the Boss Gate can be opened up. The player controls both Felton and Trent as a combined duo, in a similar vein to the Sonic the Hedgehog games. The leader can be switched between at any time however, and multiplayer modes have you controlling a single character. The two are identical in terms of gameplay, with no advantages over each other. Flight A major part of the game is flight, in that the characters of the game can fly through the open sandbox levels of the game. By running for a certain duration of time, you fill up the Flight Meter, which allows you to ascend into the sky. While in the sky, you will fall unless you flap your wings to the rhythm with the or button. However, you can't fly forever, and will eventually hit the ground regardless of how well you perform. The rhythm you flap your wings to depends on the background music's rhythm, with no two areas being the same. The music will get faster as you fly, making it harder to maintain button presses. Flight can also be extended by hitting enemies, items, or clouds, which will grant you a boost in altitude. However, enemies need to be hit with a Aerial Dive or Beak Spin first, or you'll plummet to the ground! Multiplayer Co-op A second player can take control of one of your duo's members, with both Enigma consoles connecting wirelessly or online. Both players can work together to play through the entire game. VS Mode VS Mode is a competitive multiplayer mode that takes place in any of the game's Areas. The objective is to collect as many Beak Crystals as possible before the timer runs out. Beak Crystals are scattered around the area, but can also be stolen from other players by attacking them. This mode supports up to four players at once, and can be played locally or online. In VS Mode, everyone chooses Felton or Trent's design as a cosmetic choice, as they both play identically. Player numbers will be above each player to help differentiate. Collectables Birds of a Feather has many different collectables to be obtained. While only three of them are mandatory to clear the game, collecting all of the others is required for 100% completion. Locations Areas Ten different Areas exist in Birds of a Feather. To open up the next Area, you need to collect a certain amount of Golden Eggs, Feathers, and Regional Feathers to open up the Boss Gate, and then defeat the boss, before using the Boss Key it drops to gain access to the next Area. Areas are travelled between via the Breadkeeper's network of gates. Bonus Zones Bonus Zones are linear platforming challenges similar to the Special Stages seen in the Sonic the Hedgehog games, as well as Super Mario Odyssey's "small world" areas. These areas reward Phoenix Orbs (though some have Golden Eggs scattered throughout), and there's three of them hidden throughout every Area. Enemies Many different enemies exist in Birds of a Feather, most of which are based on various real-world animals. Bosses Minigames Shadebeak operates a side venture besides his shopkeeping, by running minigames. These minigames accept Feathers as payment, and offer chances to get Golden Eggs among other rewards. Minigames have three difficulties: Easy, Normal, and Hard. Each difficulty rewards two Golden Eggs, each for achieving a set number of points. Minigames also rely extensively on Felton and Trent's skillset. Observation Cards Observation Cards are a special type of collectable similar to Super Paper Mario's Catch Cards. These cards are obtained from defeating enemies, and can also be found throughout the game's Areas and even purchased from Shadebeak's shop. On the card is a picture of a character, enemy, boss, object, location, or item from the game, and a description. These descriptions often have funny jokes or insights, and in some cases offer tips, such as boss weaknesses. Observation Cards can also be sold for Feathers, with rarer cards selling for more. However, you're always able to buy back cards that can only be obtained once. Some NPCs will also give you a Golden Egg if they're shown a specific card, further encouraging you to collect them. Qualities Observation Cards have three qualities: Common, Rare, and Super Rare. The rarer the card, the more it sells for. Development Birds of a Feather started development as a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64. However, when talks began regarding the idea of non-linear 2D platforming, the game's focus was shifted to having a 2D perspective, adding in Metroidvania elements to allow for exploration-focused 2D platforming. The game also had a dual purpose: to create mascot characters that could rival Mario and Sonic. Inspiration By far the biggest inspirations for the game were Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64, two of the most famous collectathon games in history. However, they were both known for being tedious at times, particularily Donkey Kong 64 and its constant backtracking. To remedy this, there'd only be two playable characters, and they'd be controlled at the same time. As for other inspirations, Super Mario Odyssey came to mind. It represented an ideal way of doing a collectable-based game, but it was still radically different from the main two inspirations. From Super Mario Odyssey, the developers would take the level design and boss battle mechanics, albeit shift it to 2D. The 2D Sonic the Hedgehog games and the Mario fangame Super Mario 63 would serve as the main inspirations for the 2D side of the game. Sonic would be an inspiration when it comes to the decision to have two characters controlled as well as the locales and Special Stage concept, and Super Mario 63 was used as inspiration due to how it attempted the idea of a 2D collectathon before. Character Design From the beginning of development, the decision was made to base the game's characters on that of the mascot platformers of the early-mid 90s. Once the focus on flight-based platforming was determined, it was decided that the main characters would be a duo of birds. The actual art itself was outsourced to Crash Co., who came up with designs for Felton and Trent. Flight Mechanics After intensive brainstorming, flight was decided to be the main "gimmick", as Mario's was jumping and Sonic's was speed. The game's creator had always loved utilizing flight in 2D platformers, and wanted to build upon it. The design of the game's flight mechanics took inspiration from two sources: Super Mario Bros. 3's Super Leaf and Tanooki Suit, and Super Mario World's Cape Feather. Each of them had their issues: Super Mario Bros. 3's flight-based powerups were doomed to having a short duration as well as being too easy to pull off, while the Cape Feather was laughably broken due to how it granted indefinite flight when mastered. The best of both worlds would be taken for Birds of a Feather's flight mechanics: the simplicity of the Super Leaf and Tanooki Suit would be retained through the Flight Meter, while the complexity of the Cape Feather would be retained in that flight could be mastered to last a while. However, indefinite flight was near-impossible by human players due to the music speeding up, to ensure that players didn't abuse it constantly. Plot The game wasn't meant to be plot-intensive, but some effort went into it. The core focus was to have something simple, but comedic. The "Exvento Swap" console was an obvious parody of the Nintendo Switch, and having an out-of-stock system stolen would surely affect people immensely. The game was also planned to be linked to Ghostrealm Studios's other original games, and would see a big crossover coming up. Gallery Birds-of-a-Feather.png|The game's logo. AgentBoaF.png|Group artwork of Felton and Trent by User:AgentMuffin. Felton.png|Art of Felton, by User:Pokerninja2. Trent.png|Art of Trent, by User:Pokerninja2 Trivia *Birds of a Feather takes heavy inspiration from the flash game Super Mario 63, which was a Mario fangame designed similarily to Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine, but from a 2D perspective. *The choice to have Golden Eggs as the main collectable was inspired by the fable "The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs". *Redfeather is a reference to the superhero Robin, Batman's sidekick. **However, Redfeather retains Batman's vigilante personality. *Meowpacks are based on a scrapped hero concept for the game Overwatch. *The Phoenix Orbs are very similar to the Chaos Emeralds seen in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, but their powers are only granted per area. *Junk Station is a homage to both the Super Mario Galaxy games and the more mechanical areas seen in the Sonic the Hedgehog games like Chemical Plant Zone. *Eggtula's boss fight is a homage to the Chemical Plant Zone: Act 2 boss fight in Sonic Mania, where the traditional gameplay was replaced with that of one of Sega's puzzle games: Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine. Category:2D Platforming Games Category:Enigma Games Category:Ghostrealm Games Category:Collectathon Games Category:Ghostrealmverse